48, KENSINGTON COURT

Details

KENSINGTON

TQ 2579 NE KENSINGTON COURT 249/31/10184 48 23-AUG-00

GV II

Town mansion, now subdivided as flats. 1888-89, J. A. Slater, architect, for Colonel R.E.B. Crompton, Kirk and Randall of Woolwich, contractors. Orange-red engineering brick, English bond, with Portland stone dressings, blue Welsh slated roof concealed by parapet. 5 storeys with attic over basement, with front area. Simplified Tudor style, front of two unequal bays, with entrance at right, approached by steps. Inset doorway, with battened door, having elaborate foliated strap hinges, knocker and handle for centred arch, with carved foliated spandrels and moulded surround, with inset 3 light mullioned window, with patterned leaded glazing, to left, within stone surround, beneath dripmould left-hand bay has projecting 3 light mullion and transom window, in stone surround, with plain glazing, beneath moulded base of tall oriel mullion and transom bay, which runs through first and second floors. String course below bay continues across facade as shallow balcony, supported on stone corbels, above entrance. Elaborate wrought-iron railed frontal; access from 2 light mullion and transom window. Top 2 floors have 3 light and 2 light mullion and transom windows at each level, with stone string courses running around the building at cill and head levels. Gabled attic at left, with 2 light mullioned window, and moulded coping to parapet. Modern 2 light dormer window to right, behind parapet. Tall brick chimneystack, with oversailing courses at right, on party wall, left hand chimneystack has gabled base, and appears to have been reduced in height. Building frontage has stone piers to entrance stair, with solid parapet sides, elaborate wrought-iron area railings over stone base course along frontage. Return elevation at left simplified, and blank at right, with string courses carried around from frontage, at fourth floor level on right there are 7 closely spaced projecting slender brick pilasters, at left 2 tall plain glazed sash windows on each floor, further left building sets back as 2 bay outshoot, and joins to No. 46, the former Electric Lighting Station, built 1888, also promoted by Colonel Crompton and designed by J. A. Slater.
History: Colonel R.E.B. Crompton was a notable pioneer of electrical engineering. In 1885 he was shown around Kensington Court, the development of which began in 1882, promoted by Jonathan Carr, and designed initially by J. J. Stephenson. In 1886, Crompton's company, the Kensington Court Electric Lighting Company, established a temporary generator station to serve the development, superseded in 1888 by the permanent structure of No. 46. Crompton's house, originally named 'Thriplands' was built in 1888-89, and in addition to electric lighting, made use of gas for heating and cooking, also a pioneer venture. The building was steel-framed, an early and significant use of the technique, with 'Lindsay's steel decking' used for the ground floor. The third and fourth floors were originally fitted out as Crompton's laboratory.
["Survey of London", XL11, p 75 A.S. Gray, "Edwardian Architects", p 333 N. Pevsner, "London 3: north-west", pp 514-5]

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

482468

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Gray, A S, Edwardian Architecture A Biographical Dictionary, (1985), 333
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: London 3 North West, (1991), 514-15

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